Webinar:

How to Strengthen the Customer Experience through Brand Research and Testing

Lisa Bertelsen, Partner at Chatter Inc.Alfonso de la Nuez, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at UserZoom

#uzwebinar

Lisa BertelsenPartnerChatter Inc.

Alfonso de la NuezCo-Founder and Co-CEOUserZoom

Speakers:

www.userzoom.com

• Chat box is available if you have any questions

• There will be time for Q&A at the end

• We will be recording the webinar for future viewing

• All attendees will receive a copy of the slides/recording

• Twitter hashtag: #uzwebinar

Quick Housekeeping

www.userzoom.com

About UserZoom

UX Consultants since ’01, SaaS since ‘09

In Sunnyvale (CA) Manchester (UK), Munich (DE) and Barcelona (Spain)

90% renewal rate, 50% revenue growth rate

UserZoom offers an all-in-one, multi channel and agile approach to managing digital Customer Experiences by enabling brands to cost-effectively plan, research, design, and measure CX and UX on a unified software platform.

Product Suite: Unmoderated Remote Usability Testing

Web and Mobile Voice of Customer

Remote Mobile Usability Testing

Online Surveys (web & mobile)

Online Card Sorting

Tree Testing

Screenshot Click Testing

Screenshot Timeout Testing (5-sec test)

www.userzoom.com

About UserZoom

Listen

Research

Test & Act

Measure

Unique, innovative & holistic approach to online CXM

www.userzoom.com

About Chatter

Chatter is an independent, full-service market research consultancy

Founded in 2002

Offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York

We’re business people and brand experts first. Our team is comprised of senior-level consultants who come from brand strategy, advertising, and brand management (Prophet, Deutsch, Siegel+Gale, Hal Riney, Activision) –disciplines that inform an actionable, big-picture point of view. Because of this, we use research as a means to an end, not the end itself.

Strategic insight is the name of our game. Chatter has a relentless focus on building strong brands. We deliver recommendations that get to the heart of the issue and are designed to drive businesses forward.

www.userzoom.com

• The link between brand and customer experience (5 min)

• Five types of brand research (35 min)1. Brand architecture2. Brand personality3. Concept & ad testing4. Name5. Brand Experience

• UserZoom Capabilities for Marketing Research (5 min)

• Q&A (10 min)

Agenda

Introduction to Brand Strategy

“The brand strategy offers guidance on how to implement and abide by the vision set by the brand; the customer experience strategy dictates what the experience of the brand should be for customers and how to achieve it.”

Cory Munchbach, The Convergence Of Brand, Customer Experience, And

Marketing

The link between brand and customer experience

Customer experience: moving beyond UX

• UX is just one facet of the customer experience

• Brand is another, and it is more expansive

• But there is a lot of crossover between the two

• Today we’re going to look at ways to evaluate the customer experience through the lens of brand research. In doing so, I’ll compare and contrast, showing how they are similar and different

“To my mind, a great brand story cannot exist

without an excellent user

experience.”

Posting from QRCA discussion on LinkedIn, December 2013

Brand Experience

Customer Experience (CX)

UserExperience (UX)

The brand is the customer experience

• When we test a user experience, discussions often center on websites or devices and whether people can complete tasks. We also talk about the customer journey, which is a much larger, more comprehensive experience that moves beyond devices and technology

• When we evaluate a brand, we talk about touchpoints, which are different manifestations of the customer experience. These include UX, but there are many other kinds of touchpoints. Brand research focuses on all touchpoints people come in contact with when interacting with the company

• Brand research also looks beyond customers, to a company’s employees, partners and influential 3rd parties (e.g., analysts, the press)

• From the individual’s point of view, this flow or journey is simply one overarching experience

• The customer experience delivers the brand to consumers

In the world of brand, how and what do you test?

Well, we can test a lot of things. Today, we’ll look at types of brand research that have a lot in common with traditional CX.5

Brand research examples

1 Brand architecture How well do people understand what you sell?

What are you saying and how are you saying it? 2 Brand personality

Brand research examples

Are your products compelling and do your ads have impact?3 Concept & ad testing

Is your name distinct and does it prompt consideration?

Do your employees understand your brand and do they deliver on your brand promise? And, what is the quality of the experience that they deliver?

5 Brand experience

Name4

Brand Architecture

What is brand architecture and what does it do?

• Brand architecture is not the company’s org chart

• It clarifies the relationships between your various businesses, products, and services

• Brand architecture contributes to the customer experience by:– Helping customers navigate your product / service offering– Allowing you to demonstrate the breadth and depth of your impact– Creating an emotional connection between your customers and your

organization

Retail

Business Intelligence

Virtualization

Evaluation criteria for brand architecture is complex & varied

AlignmentThe optimization of individual

brands with the corporate strategy

• Does your portfolio reflect and reinforce your corporate, brand and business strategy?

• Do your brands invite the customer relationships you want?• Is there a clear relationship between your brands?• Are your branding practices cost-efficient?

• Are you getting your money’s worth from current brand investments?

• Can you afford to move to an ideal scenario?• What return should you expect from different models?

• Will brand change create unacceptable cultural disharmony?• Do legal or regulatory obstacles stand in the way of change?• Are your current operations and technology able to

accommodate brand integration?

Financial InvestmentHow much change will cost and what return should be

expected

OperationsThe human and organizational

barriers to change

• How well do customers understand what you sell?• Do they understand the relationship between various businesses,

products and services?• How loyal are customers to your brands?• What are the risks and rewards of change?• Can you learn from competitors or peers?

LoyaltyHow the marketplace feels and

what they understand about the current brands; how they are likely to react to change

Questions we ask when researching brand architecture

• How do decision-makers select products and services? What is their criteria?

• Who or what do they turn to in order to help them make the buying decision?

• How important is the brand? What implications does this have for the brand portfolio (e.g., Masterbrand vs. House of Brands strategy)?

• Do product definitions make sense? (e.g., by company size, by features, etc.)

• Do branded product names cause confusion?

• Which products are high-end? Mass market? For companies my size?

• What is each product’s price elasticity?

“COMPANY X has got to stop renaming

brands! There’s no logical reason behind

it. It’s absolutely ludicrous that in last

two years they have renamed nearly 400

products.”

-US Analyst, describing a Fortune 100 IT company

How do we test?• Brand architecture can be tested in numerous ways. Typically, it begins with an

overarching question:

Who is my audience and how does that audience differ across my product/service portfolio?

• This is precisely the kind of question that CX practitioners are interested in

• Then, brand researchers measure the brand equity of each product (or company, in the case of a merger/acquisition). Included here is brand valuation (the future profitability of a brand)

• We also explore different scenarios for product optimization or rationalization

1:1 interviews and groups

SurveysCard sorts

(online and offline)

Brand Personality & Messaging

Brand personality is…

• The distinctive tone, manner and style in which you communicate

• Your brand personality is defined by a set of brand attributes which shape how you look, feel and sound—blending language, design and content

• A brand’s personality is most captured in messaging– It is the outward expression of who you are. The goal is to capture the right

language and tone that embodies your brand and differentiates you from your competitors

Where does the brand personality come to life?

• The brand personality manifests itself across all touchpoints, and is used by all company stakeholders: employees, PR specialists, distributors, agency partners, etc.

– Examples: advertising, press releases, newsletters, emails, website content and employee communications, among others

• Authenticity comes from employing the right modulation of your voice in all of your communications, both internal and external

• The more consistently you use your voice, the more clearly you establish what it means to be you

A brand personality comparison

British AirwaysBritish Airways is a full service global airline, offering year-round low fares with an extensive global route network flying to and from centrally-located airports.

Virgin AtlanticHello gorgeous!

How do we test messaging?

• The testing criteria typically revolves around relevance, believability, distinctiveness, clarity and conversion. And, as with CX, we look to use cases to inform messaging

• Testing is typically done on an online platform, using interactive text-markup and heat mapping

Using research, we can answer questions such as…

• How receptive are people to your offering?

• Is your message and positioning clear?

• Is your messaging and positioning credible?

• Is your advertising relevant and compelling?

Sim

ilar to

C

X re

searc

hD

iffere

nt

than

C

X r

esearc

h

• How elastic is the brand?

• Do you have “permission” to sell particular products or services?

Sample findings: brand messaging research for a retailer

Perceived differentiators: Amplify

• The trade-in policy and the 5% store card discount represent the biggest opportunity for differentiating the company. Continue to extend and lead with messages on this theme.

Continue to build upon supporting strengths of the offering: • Free tech support • Installation and delivery • Recycling (combined with trade-in) • Extended service plans

Perceived weaknesses: Address or downplay • Dedicated, knowledgeable employees • The company lacks credibility when making this claim. Customers

automatically assume that they’re interchangeable with team members in other departments and lack product knowledge.

When communicating with this customer segment, remember:

• Describing electronics as a way to enable experiences (e.g., sharing with family and friends) creates a strong, powerful emotion and reminds respondents why they buy electronics in the first place

• Peace of mind, confidence and comfort are key emotional needs. They convey the sense that the company is a trusted and reliable advocate. But there are messages on this theme that should be avoided:

o Explicit talk about the confusion surrounding electronics can be perceived as condescending—and can create negative imagery.

o References to ‘dedicated’ or ‘specially-trained’ team members and ‘focused range of products’ are met with skepticism. Be careful not to overpromise.

!

Sample findings: brand messaging research for a retailer

Concept & Ad Testing

Concept and ad testing are where positioning, messaging & brand personality all come together

• Brand positioning – The underlying foundation or principle that supports your company and everything you do. It distinguishes you from your competition and attempts to sell the benefits of your product or service

• Brand messaging – As we said before, messaging is about capturing the language and tone that embodies your brand and differentiates you from your competitors

Definitions

What do we test?

• Decision drivers—both rational and emotional

• Resonance of needs and use cases

• Messaging and product/service concepts

• Are you different?• Is your product relevant? Is it impactful? Are you delivering the

right combination of features?• Are you persuasive? Is the offer believable, coming from you? • Do you have permission to sell? How much brand stretch?• Is the value proposition focused and clear?

1:1 interviewsor groups

Names

Q1 2012: Over 1,752,424 active name registrations in the U.S. alone

34

“We’re moving way beyond YouSendIt…

For me, the opportunity for

HighTail gives us an empty vessel to

fill with all kinds of meaning about how we want to interact

with our end users...how we want

to be known as a brand.”

A company or product name is the most visible manifestation of the brand experience…and is a topic that CX rarely addresses

• To help inform the rationale for a name decision and overcome factors that can sway decision-making:

Biases, internal politics, idiosyncrasies

Why test a name?

• To determine whether a name accomplishes its purpose:o Distinctivenesso Consideration

• To mitigate risk (e.g. perform a disaster check)

• To understand how a name affects perception:o How does it contribute value to the brand?o What is the brand personality that the name helps to create?o Does the name help the brand stretch?

• Value contribution How well the name contributes value to the concept, category or brand

What and how do we test?

• Associationso Thoughts, feelings and imagery that people tie to words

• Flexibility The more flexible a name is, the easier it is to adapt to different product line

extensions or price tiers.

• Dimensionality Greater dimensionality is a key indicator of a name’s ability to be memorable

and engage consumers at an emotional level

1:1 interviews

Surveys

What and how do we test?

• Emotional engagemento How a name makes us feel

• Auditory resonance How a name sounds and whether the name matches people’s perception of the

product or category

• Pronounceability How can you remember (or recommend) a product if you can’t say it?

• Brand stretch Price tiers, need states, different product categories

Brand experience

How do we gauge the brand experience? We begin with the customer experience

• Our focus is on the brand experience that employees deliver

• Again, we use the same techniques as traditional CX

1:1 interviewsEthnography

Shop-alongsMystery Shops

Customer journey mapping

Ghosting

Online testingComms audit

But unlike CX, we also look at internal brand alignment

• In other words, are the company’s employees aligned behind its purpose? Purpose is

the essential reason for which the company exists. Purpose answers the question:

“Why do we do what we do?”

• Employees are the face of the brand. The experience delights or disappoints, based on their beliefs, behavior and commitment

How do we test brand alignment?What do employees know and believe about your brand? What do we stand for? Is our company purpose…

o 1) Unifying 4) Credible 7) Clearo 2) Compelling 5) Actionableo 3) Motivating 6) Simple

1:1 interviews and groups

Surveys

Recap

We started by talking about brand experience and customer experience

Brand Experience

Customer Experience (CX)

UserExperience (UX)

Brand research examples

1 Brand architecture

2 Brand personality

3 Concept & ad testing

Product & company names4

5 Brand experience

We looked at 5 types of brand research

Brand research examplesWe showed how we test brands, and the similarities between brand and CX research methods

1 Card sorts 5 One-on-one and group interviews, surveys

2 Use cases 6 Online text mark-up and online CX tools

3 Mystery shopping/shop alongs 7 Communications audits

(website, mobile, print)

4 Ethnography 8 Customer journey mapping

brand architecture / names

messaging

brand experience

brand experience

brand experience / internal alignment / names / architecture

messaging, brand experience

messaging, brand experience

brand experience

www.userzoom.com

Capabilities for Marketing Research

Online Surveys

Understand your customers’ attitude, feelings, concerns and satisfaction levels

Conduct persona research

www.userzoom.com

Capabilities for Marketing Research

Timeout Testing

Find out whether customers understand what you offer

Find out what customers remember about your offering or company prior to leaving

www.userzoom.com

Capabilities for Marketing Research

Card Sorting

Test brand architecture

Test whether your site is clearly organized

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Capabilities for Marketing Research

Video Question

Customer Feedback: Get videos of customers talking about their experience after using a website

Ethnographic Research: Ask participants to record how/when/where they use your product/website in their real life.

Mystery Shopping

Thank you

Lisa Bertelsen Alfonso de la NuezEmail: lisa@chatterinc.com alfonso@userzoom.comWebsite: www.chatterinc.com www.userzoom.com

Follow us on Twitter @userzoom